Ten items or fewer

My new pet peeve.

 

The joys of receiving mistaken words

On March 10, 2012, I received this text from an unknown number:

Hi
I had
Your Wrong number.  I sent my number. [insert phone number] …. Why r u asking ? 11:15

Might lie down now

Puzzled but vastly intrigued and curious, I responded.  I found out that morning that I was texting woman named Rosalinda, who spoke Spanish, and, I think, was also a pastor (when I asked who she was, she said, “I’m your father”).  We conversed that morning, including a bit in Spanish, before she said she wanted to take a nap.  And that was it.

What a surprise it was to wake up and turn on my phone to receive such a message.  Every now and then I’ll get a wrong-number call, but oh so rarely does one ever get wrong-number texts.  And in an age where people spend more time looking down at their phones than up at anyone they’re speaking to, getting words from an unknown source feels as spontaneous as someone randomly coming up to you on the street and saying hello.  Sure, this may just be me and my love for words, and sure, no one talks to a person who dials the wrong number, but why not?  Whatever happened to just being friendly?  We’re told from a young age not to talk to strangers; think about all the people we ignore in our everyday lives.  I have no idea where this is going and my mind is scattered at the moment, so everything I’m writing is a little incoherent, but…

What was the point?  Oh yes.  Words.

Dead Kid Detective Agency — Ch. 7 audio score

Here’s the second piece I wrote for Ch. 7 of The Dead Kid Detective Agency.

To try

According to dictionary.com, the first two definitions for the word “try” are as follows:

verb (used with object)

1.  to attempt to do or accomplish

2.  to test the effect or result of (often followed by out)

We’re told when we’re learning about verbs and parts of the English language, that verbs are “action words”, and many, if not all of them, imply some sort of physical action.  To jump, to run, to hide, to phone, to scream.  You can see people doing these things.

The verb “try” is different in that it not only uses an object (since you can’t really picture someone “trying” on its own), but that, as I have recently dwelled upon, it is a verb that also implies a mental investment.

Trying is a physical act, like any of the other verbs.  For example, the phrase, “Sally tried to hug a panda” shows Sally attempting — and in all likelihood, failing — to embrace a panda bear.  But what is also there is that Sally is invested in hugging the bear.  Excluding the possibilty that she was drunk, stoned, or just not thinking clearly, her attempt shows she mentally wanted to do it, similar to the mens rea, in Law terminology.  Even if she failed in the physical act of trying to hug the panda, her mens rea, or dedication/investment to her hugging goal, still stands.  And coupled with her mental investment to the goal which is then manifested in the real world through the physical act itself, does it really matter if Sally failed?

Isn’t it enough that she simply tried?

Research essays are the death of me

Well, not really.  Due to my natural Asianness and thus having high expectations about everything that I do, I now see that I’m just not that great with research essays.  I got my essay back for American Cinema class and yeah, I knew handing it in that it wasn’t the best thing I’ve ever written, but I got a B and I am disappointed.  Yes, I am not an essay writer but I have gotten many A’s for take-home essays in the past; however, those ones were focused on the text itself and not involving outside sources.  Maybe the research is what throws me off… or maybe I’m just not an essay writer.

Thank god I only have one more research essay for Canadian Lit. class left to do.  Then it’s final exams (2 more essays under a damn time limit) and hopefully I will never have to write another academic essay in my life.  One can only hope, anyway.

Un Pas (English translation)

For those who want to know what I’m singing.

Un Pas (English translation)

A step
Can change life.
A step,
It’s so easy.
Left, in front, right,
A step, a step for me.

I am very high,
So high that I see the clouds.
And if, if I shouted,
No one would hear me.

A step
Can change your life.
A step,
It’s so easy.
Now, I have a lot of choices,
A step, a step for me.

To the right, safety.
Like all the decisions I’ve made.
But in front, it calls my name.
I can feel myself falling.

A step
Can change my life.
A step,
It’s so easy.
It was the time, I believe.
A step, the step for me.

Un Pas (French lyrics)

Just yesterday, I gave the link of my writing blog to a classmate on mine in my French class so I thought I should post something French-y in case she comes across this soon so I seem less dumb about not being able to speak French very well. 

Un Pas

Un pas
Peut changer la vie
Un pas
C’est si facile
La gauche, en avant, la droite,
Un pas, un pas pour moi.

Je suis si très haut
Si haut que je vois les nuages.
Et si, si je criais
Personne ne m’écouterait

Un pas
Peut changer ta vie
Un pas
C’est si facile
Maintenant, j’ai beaucoup de choix
Un pas, un pas pour moi.

La droite, securité
Comme toutes les decisions j’ai pris
Mais en avant, il appele mon nom
Je peux me sentir tombe

Un pas
Peut changer ma vie
Un pas
C’est si facile
C’était le temps, je crois
Un pas, le pas pour moi